Open pit burn/open pit detonation (OB/OD) processes have been and continue to be used by the military and law enforcement agencies for emergency and field destruction of conventional munitions, toxic chemical agent filled munitions, terrorist bombs and weapons, and other recovered chemical warfare materials (CWM). Tremendous public and government interest has been generated to develop alternative methods for safe, environmentally responsible methods for the destruction of these types of materials. Environmental regulations have been enacted by state and federal environmental agencies in response to public and private concerns about the safety and efficacy of the OB/OD destruction/demilitarization processes.
A schematic illustration of an OB/OD destruction structure is shown generally as 10 in FIG. 1. The small rectangle 12 at the center of the Figure denotes the zone or area on the surface 14 of the ground 16 in which the materials to be destroyed and the explosive charges used to destroy them are set and assembled prior to detonation. The explosion produces an air shock wave 18, contaminated dust products and contaminated projectiles and fragments 20, resulting in a relatively small crater 22. Prevention of ground water contamination is accomplished by conventional localized clean up.
Disadvantages and problems of conventional OB/OD destruction processes include, but are not limited to, (1) the explosive forces are not fully contained; (2) gases, typically called "off gases", generated from conventional munitions and toxic chemical agent destruction are released directly into the atmosphere; (3) no mechanism is used to prevent seepage and migration of destruction liquid wastes and gases into the ground and underground aquifer; and (4) toxic chemical warfare agents and detonation off-gases may not be completely destroyed in the OB/OD destruction process.
It would be desirable if a structure and method could be devised to overcome some of the problems in the conventional OB/OD) destruction processes.